Implications and importance of the negative in Burke's dramatistic philosophy of language

To prove, explain, and differentiate from scientific views Burke's dramatistic philosophy of language, one starts with the negative. The negative is the dramatic symbol par excellence. It elicits from the defenders of scientism a discordant collection of responses. Implying the terms “infinity,” “perfection,” and “spiritual or moral purpose,” the negative validates dramatism, manifests dramatism's explanatory power, via its omnipresence in language systems; its pervasive influence in religion, art, spectator sports, and even severely reduced forms of human life; its centrality to relativity physics, the reigning model of the universe; and its demonstrable appearance in the creative, purposive, ethical, entelechial, hierar‐chal, dialectical, and dramatic attributes of symbols and symbolic action.

Key concepts:

• Kenneth Burke
• dramatism
• language
• negation
• infinity
• perfection
• purpose